The present invention relates to an electrical terminal including an insulating housing which receives a stationary electrically conducting contact element with fork-shaped receptacles constituting cutting blades and several tool-pivoted drive elements each designed to keep in place an electrical conductor clad in an insulated sheath and to cut through the insulated sheath when such a conductor is pivoted out of an initial position in one of the fork-shaped receptacles of the contact element and to drive the area of the conductor freed of its insulation into conducting clamped contact with the contact element while the drive element locks into its end position.
Insulation-stripping screwless terminals are known and particular designs are disclosed, for example, in Swiss Patents Nos. 653 813; 664 647 and 667 164. These known terminals exhibit a housing fitted with a foot for affixation to a support rail. Such terminals are used to hook up incoming and outgoing lines, the two conductors being electrically connected to each other in simple and rapid manner by the contact element configured in the housing.
It has been found, however, that contemporary terminals having one hook-up for an incoming line and one hook-up for an outgoing line frequently are inadequate. An expanded design having more than two hook-up sites in the form of consecutive receptacles and associated pivotable drive elements not only entails complex manufacture, but also entails a commensurate larger bulk to the terminal on account of the required extension of the contact element.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a terminal design including four connection sites and yet remaining compact in size.
Particular embodiment modes of the terminal of the invention are defined in the claims.
The object of the invention is elucidated by means of an illustrative embodiment shown in the drawings.